Culture

The effects of alcohol on behaviour are determined by cultural rules and norms, not by the chemical actions of ethanol.There is enormous cross-cultural variation in the way people behave when they drink alcohol. There are some societies (such as the UK, the US, Australia and parts of Scandinavia) that anthropologists call “ambivalent” drinking-cultures, where drinking is associated with disinhibition, aggression, promiscuity, violence and anti-social behaviour.

There are other societies (such as Latin and Mediterranean cultures in particular, but in fact the vast majority of cultures), where drinking is not associated with these undesirable behaviours – cultures where alcohol is just a morally neutral, normal, integral part of ordinary, everyday life – about on a par with, say, coffee or tea. These are known as “integrated” drinking cultures.

Economics

There is a U-shaped relationship between a woman’s education and how much children she will produce: “The women having the least number of children are those that started college but did not finish (1.79 on average). The next lowest group is women who have a college degree (1.93). And among women with education greater than high school, the ones with the most children are those with advanced college degrees (1.98).” So having more education correlates with having a larger family. This goes against the conventional idea that the more education a woman has, the less children she will have. However, the downfall is that the study has made the father’s work hours fixed in order to look closer at women’s work habits.

Gender

Global Warming

Logic

If someone doesn’t come to the rational conclusion based on argumentation, should you be dick about it? In other words, how offensive should you be when you argue with someone? It’s not a simple answer.

Science

Amazing. Scientists have a skin cell gun where it replaces burned skin within days, not weeks or months like the traditional method. Seriously, this guy doesn’t even look like he got burned.

If you present a study to a group of people, they won’t be impressed. If, however, you present the study with neuroscience–even if the neuroscience is irrelevant (!)–then the group of people are wowed by it.

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About shaunmiller

I am a Ph. D student at Marquette University. The primary purpose of this blog is to get my ideas out there, and then have other people scrutinize, critique, build upon, and systematize beliefs. This blog will sometimes pertain to what I'm learning in my classes, but it will occasionally deal with non-classroom issues that I'm thinking about as well.